You can listen to this episode here.
Today, Caro Asercion (i'm sorry did you say street magic) brings us a game and mechanic all about instinct and physical embodiment: Keys from the larp Keymaster. This game isn't like most games. It’s so much about physical embodiment and exploring group identity rather than pesky shit like “storytelling”. Physicality! Larp! The Golden Cobra Challenge! We've got it all.
Further Reading
Keymaster by J Li
i’m sorry did you say street magic by Caro Asercion
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Caro on itch
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Transcript
Sam: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Dice Exploder. Each week, we take a tabletop RPG mechanic and get into a staring contest with it. My name is Sam denim wall and my co-host this week is Caro Acersion.
When I started Dice Exploder, Caro was one of the first people I knew I wanted to have on. Their city building game, i'm sorry did you say street magic?, is this excellent hack evolution of Ben Robin's classic timeline building game Microscope, but street magic takes the incredible bones of the original and in my opinion, imbues them with this extra breadth of emotion and life. I feel a similar breath with Caro's Beam Saber supplement Rearguard, co-designed with Rufus Roswell, a collection of playbooks that brings us down out of the mech warfare and into the support staff around the mech pilots. Caro is just a great designer. One of my favorites.
And today they brought us a small larp Keymaster and its flagship mechanic Keys. Key master isn't like any other game I've really read. It's so much about physical embodiment and group identity rather than pesky shit like storytelling. Basically you decide on a key for your group, an overall identity, like in the woods at a cold autumn, sunset. And that's your group's key. Then you take turns, making declarative statements posing dramatically, and by doing so explore your individual and group identities. Key master is a strange little game and it contains within it so many things I want to talk a lot more about. Physicality as a part of play best practices for players at the table and larp, larp, LARPing, all things you can expect more of in the next year of Dice Exploder.
But this isn't just a preview of things to come. It's a full conversation unto itself. I can't wait to get into it. Here is Caro Asercion with Keymaster's keys.
Sam: Carol, thanks so much for being on Dice Exploder.
Caro: Yeah, thank you for having me. Happy to be here.
Sam: What are we talking about
Today,
Caro: Today, we are going to be talking about a game which I really love. I feel it's one of the hidden gems of the 2010s indie game design scene. We're going to be talking about Keymaster by J Li.
Sam: So, I think we should talk about the background and the context around how this game came to be before we get into what is the game itself. Because that gives us an excuse to talk about the Golden Cobra Challenge, which is one of my favorite game design RPG things out there.
Golden Cobra, what is it?
Caro: Golden Cobras are a annual game design competition for design, specifically LARP design, right? Focused on games that are, you know, rooted in an idea of embodied performance, thinking about LARP, thinking about different modes of play, thinking about not necessarily just LARP. Sitting down at the table.
Also, working within a particular set of time constraints. competition runs for, I want to say, a month and a half, roughly. Often has a handful of different ingredients, sort of Iron Chef style. and really focused on and centered around supporting new, small, scrappy, interesting ideas for LARP and kind of what play can be, right?
Sam: Yeah. I think of the Golden Cobra as a part of my indie story game tabletop scene, and it's not that. I think the people involved with it are very much doing LARP , even though it kind of feels like the small, scrappy indie tabletop scene that I think you and I are more a part of.
Caro: there's overlap, right? I think there's a very clear, like, it is LARP and it is really a cornerstone of the LARP community, right? But it has that porousness and that degree of overlap in, who's bringing their ideas into the space and it, I love the golden cobras. I think there's a really, really interesting exchange of ideas that happens through the work that they're doing.
And I'm really excited about Keymaster because it was a Golden Cobra contender ten years ago. Back in 2014.
Sam: Anniversary! Let's revisit the 2014 Golden Cobras. Let's travel back in time. I'll put the wooshy travel back in time sound effect right here. In the 2014 Golden Cobras, I have some copy here from the website about what was going on with the men that I'm gonna read. So,
The goal of the 2014 contest was to generate games playable at large conventions like Gen Con, where time and space are in short supply.
Boy, do I miss the days of that being a goal. Okay
In order to be considered for a Golden Cobra, games had to 1. Be playable from start to finish in 2 hours or less, 2. Be playable by a variable but small number of participants, ideally a wide range, like 2 to 8, 3. Be playable in a public space, like an open lounge in a busy hallway. 4. Optionally, use the ingredients Chord, Light, Solution, Bear, or Minute.
And then, Golden Cobras were also awarded in four categories. I want to step back here and talk about the Golden Cobras at large here. Like, it's a Challenge, it's a competition, but it's fundamentally a game jam, right? Like, the purpose is to just, like, get a bunch of games, and some of my favorites in past years have been ones that didn't win awards. I think that's true of most people who engage with the Golden Cobras.
So, the categories here of what was gonna be award worthy are, in some ways, to me, like, additional ingredients. They are goals for people to shoot towards, and there were games that won these, but they aren't necessarily like, the best games, you know what I mean?
Caro: it is a game jam. It's, this is game jams. Pre itch. io right
Sam: Okay,
so, the four award categories, most convention ready, Most appealing to newcomers, cleverest design, and finally game we're most eager to play. So that's kind of the pool we're swimming in when we get to Keymaster. So I would love to hear you describe to me what the heck is Keymaster, because it like, one of the reasons we're talking about it today is that it does not feel like most tabletop RPGs or even LARPs.
Caro: Yeah, the bare bones elevator pitch I'm actually going to pull this in J's words in the text of the game itself. Keymaster is a short ritual of dramatic identity.
The way that the game works and kind of the premise of the game is about building dramatic identities for a group of players in a collective environment. You know, one of the things that the text says is, Keymaster is only about identity. There's no storytelling, there's no describing events, and there's no character actions.
In the past I've heard Keymaster described as If this is a game where you get to stand around and feel really cool and powerful for a bit and do sort of a collective communal dramatic monologue,
Sam: Yeah, I found one of the most interesting parts of the introduction and clarifying parts to be the reference videos that it includes in the game. One of which is to a clip on YouTube from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena? The student council speech, and this means nothing to me, but the video is like, Three characters in an elevator appearing in silhouette and saying dramatic things.
And then the second video it links to is the Veronica Mars season 3 opening credits. And I think if you watched opening credits in the 90s or even the, aughts or tens, the vibe there is, oh, here's a character like, doing their thing, and then they like, turn and pose to the camera dramatically, and we get the actor that's playing them.
And that, a whole game of doing that, Keymaster is more than that, but I think that's a great instance of what Keymaster is doing, and a great energy to be bringing into playing the game.
Caro: yeah, like, another potential point of comparison, like, if you're thinking of, that kind of dramatic show, like, the previously on montage at the
start of, the episode of like, You know, here are all of the plot relevant threads from the past, three episodes that are gonna come home to roost. What if you're playing out the previously on montage, but you are doing that in the moment? There is no previously, that is just the thing that we're building together.
Sam: And you're not gonna keep playing afterwards, either. Like, that's the entirety of the
Caro: that's the whole of it. Yeah, you know, it's a character creation game, but it's a character creation game and a role playing game in the moment. It's not designed for us to say, Oh, these characters are really cool, let's take this and, run with it into another system or another thing. It's just again, about being in the moment and feeling really cool and really powerful in the moment,
Sam: It's an exploration of identity, maybe.
Okay. So the mechanic we are here to talk about is keys. So, what are keys in the context of this game? I think they're kind of the beginning of how Keymaster works, but maybe tell us what keys are and then also just keep going through and explain how the game works after that, because I think it's one of those small games where everything kind of ties back into everything else
Caro: 100%. I'm gonna go ahead and read this text directly from the rules. So, what is a key, and why am I the master of it?
A key is an inspiration point, a concrete component used to ground and inform the identity you develop. You're the master of it in an almost philosophical sense. The fundamental fiction that we assume in this game is that you are the most interesting route through which the key can be approached or expressed. This is why you're important enough to be featured so dramatically.
Which, I'm gonna stick a pin in that, we're gonna, we should come back to that in a moment, cause I've, I, I, I wanna stick to the specifics of that language.
But the text goes on to explain there are a couple of different types of keys. There's the master key, which is sort of the core key for all of the participants in the group. Which is like the central unifying point of inspiration that everybody plays, or that everybody shares. most cases, that is going to be the location and the atmosphere that the game, you know, the environment that the game is played in.
Sam: yeah, to go back to the 90s TV credits, right, like, group of monster hunters could get you to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and could be your master key, right?
Caro: Yes, and I think it's, you know, recognizing that this is pulling from a LARP history and, and particularly from an embodied origin, like, recognizing, core unifying thing that J is doing here is connecting it to physical space, right? Is saying like, if we're hiking and we pause and we're like, you know, grabbing a sip of water or a snack, we say, hey, this moment, this glade that we're in has a really nice view out onto the rest of the forest. There's something cool about this. We want to play Keymaster in this moment.
Like, that space that we are in, the physical environment, is the thing that is unifying us, right? We're co present in that space. And you know, we can figure out the genre and the additional layers that are on top of it, but it starts fundamentally in the physical world in a really interesting space.
Sam: I think there's something really interesting going on in the game text where, the main example that carries through the primary text is that The master key for the group is, in the woods, at a cold autumn sunset, a sense of quiet peace mixed with a sharp chill. Which very much gets to what you're describing.
But some of the examples, as I recall, are more similar to what I was saying of like, Oh, you're all like cyberpunk assassins, or whatever. And I very much read the latter as an attempt generalize the game for a wider audience.
Like, of course you can play this game with a group of cyberpunk assassins as your master key, but it's not the thing that J is most interested in. Like, I think J is most interested in the thing that you are talking about of connecting to the physical environment around you, and connecting to maybe even your real life identities in some way.
Caro: Yeah, or, if you are embodying, like you say cyberpunk assassins or wizards or, you know, something that is very much in that speculative space I think doing so Informed by the environment, right? like you said, there are some examples in the text of like, you don't have to connect this to the environment and to the physical space. But it helps, right?
And I think particularly when we're thinking about just the ways in which you are able to embody and you're able to build that proximity definitely, definitely shines through.
Sam: Yeah,
Caro: so that's Master Keys. There are also personal keys which each player chooses individually. A personal key works exactly the same way except that each player picks one and it sort of informs their identity rather than the group's collective identity. And there's a really specific thing that J says in the text, which is, each personal key should be a component element of the master key.
So, you know, in the example J uses, again, thinking back to the cold autumn forest, it could be something related to the evergreens, the sunset, the woods as a whole, their smell, the quality of light in the sky, really connecting to one specific and concrete aspect of what makes up the whole, and thinking about, the master key as the whole of the sum of the parts it's doing a really interesting thing related to the ways that these characters are going to be the whole, you know, the sum of the group when you kind of combine them together.
Sam: Yeah, What do we then do with keys while we're playing?
Caro: Yeah, yeah, so the core loop of gameplay is using these keys as ways to embody and I think the the game specifically says declare truths. Players can only speak in declarations and declarations are short, dramatic lines that express either a player's own personal identity or the collective group identity.
They're about saying what you think, they're saying who you are, they're saying, you know, how do you fit into the world at large. And they are connected to or expressing some facet of the key. Either your personal key or the, the master key. And you're using that essentially to, make an embodiment, make a declaration about yourself and about the world.
Sam: I again love an example. I think maybe we should just like read a little of the example text like even just a few lines
Caro: Sure.
Should we start with just trading off on, on the two of these?
Sam: let's do that. So yeah, go ahead and kick us
off
Caro: Yeah these woods remember all that has happened in them.
Sam: In my youth, I would catch a deer and eat it raw with my own hands,
Caro: We've really made a mess of the world outside, the four of us.
Sam: but the years will pass us by, unchanging.
Caro: I've forgotten what it is to walk among mortal men.
Sam: Changing poses now to standing.
We gave them our laws. They worshiped us as gods But I mentioned poses there in the text here. So let's talk poses because there's this physical embodiment of Posing aspect to this also.
Caro: Yeah, so poses are another mechanic that is kind of directly connected to keys in a really interesting way.
Poses are, as you might guess from the name, poses. They're these like, physical expressions. They are positions that a player holds and freezes in over the course of play. You know, you're freezing in, in position from the neck down, you can look around, you can change facial expressions. But every player picks two poses, one that's sitting, one that's standing, and one that is chosen over the course of play.
So you predetermine the two, and then the third one, you know, you might discover in the moment, Oh, this is who my character is. This is a pose that is portraying them. And you're always in one pose or another and, you know, transitioning in between them.
Sam: Yeah, and the game text also talks about how the poses themselves act as like additional keys. Like the physical shape of the pose is another feeling, image, idea that you can draw from to help communicate whatever it is that you feel like you need to communicate over the course of play.
Caro: Yeah, and I think in a way that is very literally embodied, right? Like if you're doing a Hamlet monologue where you've got your arm up and you're, you know, holding the skull, right? That is going to inform and is informed by the way that you're moving kind of in, in relation to the rest of the other players and all of the pieces kind of connected together in that way.
Sam: I want to underline how much it feels like this game is about embodiment. Like first and foremost, this is a game about being in your physical body, in the physical space that you are in. And reflecting on who that means you are, who that makes you, and who you might imagine yourself to be in that space and that body.
And I don't kn I mean, that is sort of a component of a lot of LARP, of physical embodiment, but it's so purely distilled down here and focused on, and I think that that is a very smart thing to do, and this game might be a really nice introduction to doing that and getting comfortable with that and getting familiar with doing that.
Caro: Yeah, and I think does so in a way that is so generous and inviting to its players, right? Like, I don't have a LARP background. This is not necessarily something that I have a lot of experience with, and I think, in reading Keymaster and even just on the text, it makes me really think about, like, oh, So much of my own practice of playing happens at the table, whether that's literally at a table, with a bunch of character sheets and, sitting around down with, friends, or if it's, in a virtually mediated space where I'm playing a game a call with friends, right?
It is not necessarily rooted in my physical body as an instrument, right? And I think something that Keymaster is doing really intentionally is centering and uplifting that idea of physical space, of placemaking, of ritual. And like you say, it's about embodiment, but it's not just personal, like, it is, it is tying together the personal and the individual embodiment with the idea of thematic embodiment, like, oh, the, thing that we are doing, the thing that the players are doing is the representation, you know, we are the physical manifestations of the Master Key.
Sam: Yeah. Yeah, and it's building group cohesion that way, too. Like, I think the choice of a forest is a really intentional master key example, because the metaphor of we are all individual trees that together make up a forest, and we can talk about both like, what is it like to be me, to be my self, just this one tree or this one bird or whatever, but also, wow, aren't we all a part of something bigger than ourselves? It feels so much what this game is about, and interested in getting into.
Caro: mmhmm, which, if I can go back to the thing that I wanted to stick a pin in earlier, the specific language, again, just to, to repeat it, the fundamental fiction that we assume in this game is that you, the players, are the most interesting route through which the king can be approached or expressed.
It's such a clear and deliberate, like, funneling down and stripping down into, like, the bare bones, like, this is the design intent. They're creating, this group investment in the shared fiction and giving people, in that language, it is saying, like, there are no wrong answers here, right? Like, you're not trying to Be interesting. You're not trying to worry about, oh, is the thing that I say going to be the correct answer, right? You know, whatever the players do is going to be interesting because we as a group are buying into and kind of predicated on this assumption that we are going to be an interesting vector to represent the key, right?
And so It's really giving us permission to, to get silly with it and get a little bit self indulgent with it. Cause like, these kinds of dramatic opening monologues, it's like, yeah, this is a little bit cheesy, yeah, it's a little bit over the top, and It's about getting out of your head and into your body, right?
Sam: Also, for a second, like, while we're playing the game, maybe we deserve to get to be The main characters of the TV show. Like, we deserve to get to be the most important thing. cause that's what we're doing right now.
Caro: Yeah, it's, it's about feeling cool, right? It's about, like, hey, I wanna deliver this line that's about, the shadows that are haunting me, and who knows what the context for that is, you know, I'm just gonna pull that, that language out of wherever, but it feels cool, and it feels like the right thing to say, and when I deliver it, I get to do a really cool pose. And, my friends, you know, at the end of it are gonna be like, Hey, that was a cool moment that we all shared. And, what's better than that?
Sam: I find Hearing you describe that, and that permission to just get a little silly with it, like, my initial reaction to this game was like, Oh, this reads like an essay, that is getting me to think about the stuff that this game wants me to think about, but I don't know if I have any interest in actually playing it, and full disclosure, I have not had the chance to play it, and I believe neither have you,
Caro: I have not, this has been on my list of like, Oh, I would like to play this game since I discovered it like, 6 8 years ago,
Sam: So to me, I have been a little like, is this a game that I'm actually excited to play? Is it gonna win that game we're most excited to play award or is it merely massive scare quotes merely, a a really interesting essay on play and embodiment and exploring the environment around you.
And then a while ago I was playing just like a one shot with some friends. And my experience of the one shot was that it was just a huge fucking mess. Like, it just didn't it didn't go anywhere. Like, we did some cool world building, but like the game didn't really support us very well, and like,
ultimately, we had a good time because we were hanging out and like, we did do a little bit of cool world building, it felt like vibe y, and yeah, we had a good time,
And I've been thinking a lot lately about how much of roleplaying game experience across the board for everyone, for myself, and everyone on the internet, is just that. It's like, this wasn't, telling the next great American novel, we're just kind of like, shitting around and like, not doing a great job of playing the game and still enjoying ourselves because we're hanging out with our friends.
And to me, hearing your description of Keymaster as this, like, game that is just giving you permission to be self indulgent a little bit and, like, not worry about story is almost a game that's like, just do that, but intentionally do that. Just, like, stand around, like, a story doesn't matter, just kind of, like, be there fucking around with your friends and, like, eh, you shoot the shit a little bit and throw out some ideas and, like, see what happens and you can be done in 20 minutes and, like, that's kind of it.
And without the Goal of something quote unquote greater than that. I feel like This game might give me permission to really enjoy that experience a lot more.
Caro: Yeah, it is, it's so much about being in the moment, and, I don't know if this is your, you know, you sort of spoke to this a little bit, like, when I play, I often, I really often find myself getting caught up in my own head of like, oh, what is the narrative, like, are there narrative threads, are there plot beats that I should be finding parallels to, like, what is my character interiority, what's the motivation, like. I, I come from that really dramaturgical and, like, story forward style of play.
And not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think it is one of those things where, there are so many times where I find myself mid session being like, wait, I'm caught up in my own head, right? I'm, focused so much on Is this a satisfying experience? Is this cohesive? Does it cohere? That I'm not enjoying the, getting to be in the moment and, and yeah, like you say, getting to get a little bit silly with it.
And so I think there's, there's something that is really trying to connect back to the embodiment and the fundamental you know, it's not about narrating, oh, this is what I do. It's, here's who I am, you know, here's who we are, this is the relationship that I have, and I'm just stating that outright and letting it sit in and land in my body,
Sam: That being in the moment is such a good way of describing it. Cause that also like marries kind of what I was talking about back to the idea of embodiment that I think is the other main theme of the game.
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Something I was noticing while reading this game was how much the idea of keys feels like you could apply it to really any game? Like, they're almost like fate aspects. They're almost like a short little descriptive sentence of like, what your thing is, or a concept, or one little component of you.
and this game is repurposing them in towards the ideas of embodiment and being present that we've been talking about. But
Caro: yeah, I wonder if I could actually push back on that a little bit, Sam, or not, not push back, but offer like another angle into it, cause like, I, I definitely agree with you, like, I have played so many games where I'm like, I'm playing this character, how do I get to the core of this character?
Is it like, I'm coming up with a pithy phrase, or, oh, this is the song that I listen to, and that puts me in the headspace, or You know Street Magic has true names, right? Like, true names is like, that is the incisive distillation of this thing.
And all of those instances, those are keys, but they're keys that are informed by the character, rather than the other way around.
So, I don't know, I'm curious actually just like a little bit about process, like when you are doing character creation or coming up with something do you often start from like, oh here's the idea for the character and here's kind of funneling into that core, or do you start from that fundamental idea and build the character around it?
Sam: I do think that I'm usually starting from something the game has given me, right? You know, sometimes I'm picking a race in a class, and that's the thing that we're doing, and I think we all kind of know how that goes. But in some ways, like, I don't know. Paladin feels like the beginning of a good key to me.
Like in the same way that like, the light coming through the pine needles, feels like it evokes a particular image and environment to me, I can see the gleam
on her armor when I say the word paladin. And I think I'm usually starting from a place of, like, I don't really know who this person is, but I am gonna, like, pick a couple of little details to sort of immediately use as the walls that I'm gonna push off of as I figure out who this person is through play.
And I think a lot of people do that whether or not they're willing to admit it. Like, I think a lot of people, like, come in with an idea of, like, who they want their person to be, but when they actually get to the table, you see a lot of people being like what voice am I gonna do for this person?
Like, what how does this person act? Like, is this the kind of person who needs to stop and rescue the dog? Like, is this the kind of person who is just gonna like punch this guy in the face? Like, I think those kinds of exploration of who a character is, maybe they feel more specific and more, like, related to story and particular genres than Keymaster is interested in.
But I think the Keymaster and keys and exploring keys through play feels like a similar process to me. It feels like a distillation of that process of figuring out who a person's gonna be.
Caro: Yeah, yeah. And it really is, like you say, like, make a choice, pick one thing, you know, and learn and discover what that thing means through play, right? That is the thing that I think is really interesting about Keymaster is, you know, it is so embodied and it's also so emergent, right?
Like, you're picking the key, you're saying like, oh, I'm going to be playing the wind or the sound of waves across the water or, you know, I'm picking that facet of the environment, but I'm not deciding what that means until the words leave my mouth, right?
And it's in that moment which that, that gets into speech acts and that could be a whole, like, completely other tangent to go down. But
Sam: I actually want to take your question and flip it in another way and put it back to you. So, if we take that the fundamental fiction that we assume in this game is that you are the most interesting route through which the key can be approached or expressed. And we take the goal of being in the moment and embodiment as ideas that J wanted to explore. Why do you think keys are a good way to do that as opposed to some other kind of mechanic?
Caro: yeah, that's a great, that's a great question. I think it is in part based on the constraints of the game and part based on you know, I don't know how much of this was, like, imposed by the Golden Cobras versus just, like, this is the intent that J is interested in, but I think that recognizing, again, like, this is rooted in In, in the core example, the example of this is rooted in the idea of sharing a physical space and co presence, right?
Like, we are in the same space together, we are in this forest, we are on this beach, we are in this alleyway, and we can connect to these tangible, physical facets of the world that we can see or hear or smell and all of us are able to, to connect to these things in a way that we can fundamentally agree on, right?
Like, it's, if we're thinking of gameplay as creating a fundamental fiction that we are all agreeing on or, or building and constructing together starting with something that is very material or something very tangible is a really smart decision, right? It's like , when you say paladin, you spoke to, like, I can see the light gleaming off of the armor, and, like, maybe that's not what I think of when I think of the word paladin, like, it,
Language connotes different things to different people and starting with something where it's like, we can all agree that we are in this forest, that the sky is overcast, that we can hear some birdsong, you know, that we can smell the pine needles, right?
Those are fundamental truths, and you know, that gets into like, Plato's cave, like, it's sensory, you know, we don't have to go down that hole, like, but recognizing there is something here that we can agree on. Like, if there are rocks in the space or if there are, you know, three trees in this clearing, that feels very immutable in a way that something like language or like philosophical concepts is a little bit more amorphous.
It's harder to to pin down, and it's harder to build those direct connections as a starting point for something to, to build off of.
Sam: I think Keys, to answer my own question, I think keys are also very much detail oriented.
Caro: Mm, mm hmm.
Sam: that starting from that place of a small, almost poetic phrase, sort of puts you in an intuitive mindset. And that's another thing I think that this game is all about, is intuition. Trying to get in touch with your own intuition.
Part of being in the moment is to just, sort of, do the thing that feels like you need to do now. Like to, to do the thing that feels real and true to you. And I think starting small helps with that. I'm not sure exactly why, but it feels like it helps with that to me. It feels grounding in a way. And maybe then that lets you find a way to, to build out and get bigger from there?
Caro: There's almost a meditative quality to it, right? Like, we're thinking, you know, what's the, The idiom of like, five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can smell, you know, I, I don't know the exa off the top of my head, but like, that idea of starting from those sensory details and getting into a place of what am I feeling, what is in my body, and like you say, using that to intuit and to get into a place of I'm gonna let this move through me, right?
Rather than trying to, it, it is, has a really interesting relationship to the natural world of, oh, I'm gonna let this story move through me, rather than trying to exert agency upon it. Like, this is still about, you know, players have their own agency and are able to empower themselves throughout play, but it's such a symbiotic relationship with oneself, with the other players, with the environment it's, it's just really doing some interesting stuff.
Sam: Yeah. Totally.
Caro: We've sort of touched on this already but when I was going back through this, I made a little bit of a list of like, Oh, what are the things that keys do that feel similar to and different from other games that might have a character creation experience?
And so You know, we've spoken to the way that these are emergent, right? Players don't necessarily plan out a character they invented over the course of play. We've spoken to the way that these are embodied characters, right? You know, acting and declaring and doing are kind of all the same fundamental verb. It's all expressed in the same way. We've spoken a little bit to the way that it's communal, right? Like participants are. The individual affects the group and the group affects the individual in turn
But I think it's really interesting that like a character creation is comprehensive, right? and this is certainly not the only game that does this, but Like, entire thing is creation. This is about this moment, it, you know, we live in this moment, we embody this moment, and that's it.
There's no secondary intent. There's no idea of taking these characters and importing them into another game. You know, we might say, we want to know what happens to this, but it's, that's beyond the scope of Keymaster. Right?
And I, I'm curious, like, I have a lot of thoughts on, like, world building and, like, Session Zero games, or, like, using one game to, to feed into another, but is that, I guess, particularly for Keymaster, which, again, is so embodied, like, how do you see that fitting into, or do you see it fitting into that conversation, or do you feel like it really sort of stands alone as it is intended?
Sam: I mean, I think you can absolutely use Keymaster that way, right? Like, any game that you could theoretically use to create the opening credits for a TV show, is also a game you could use to create the opening credits for a TV show that you are then going to play out a season of in some other game.
I think the game is pretty clear that's not what it's most interested in you doing.
Like, in the game, it comes with a couple of extensions built in, and one of them is Shadows, Play Yourself, Use Keymaster as a Ritual to Express Alternative Inner Possibilities of Drama and Identity. And then it goes on to say, This extension is actually the original intended and recommended use for Keymaster.
That, you know, imagine that all players speak as themselves, but three things are different about each of you. You have a deep, intrinsic connection with the Master Key, you belong to a group with one another around this Master Key, and your personal key represents something concretely different about you.
And I think that is what the game is really interested in, is using this as a ritual to explore identities that might be adjacent to yours, whether that means being part of a larger group like a forest that you are not in your real life a part of, or part of a community that you are not in your real life a part of. Or to even imagine, you know what if I didn't have anxiety, or what if I did have depression, or what if, what if, what if. I think the game is by far most interested in that exploration of real life personal identity, in a way. Regardless of whether it's layering metaphor on top of that or not.
Caro: Mm hmm. Totally. Totally. Yeah, no, I, I think I would agree with that. Like, there are plenty of people who, you know, use world building games or, you know, use, use games in a way that's like, oh, this is not exactly what the designer intended, but I think, you know, it, it stands on its own, right? It's a self contained ritual. It's a singular experience in a way that, like, feels complete and whole on its own.
Sam: yeah.
Okay, on that note, I want to ask, What do you think this game is prioritizing that it's hoping you will get out of it that like a normal RPG or LARP is not prioritizing as highly, and then also like you couldn't get out of meditation or like yoga or whatever, right?
Like what is this game most interested in that's different from those activities?
Mm hmm.
Caro: I think you know, it's interesting that you kind of posit, like, two things, because I feel like, yeah, Keymaster is It's not necessarily meditation, and it's not, you know, sitting down at a table to play a game with dice and character sheets and that layer of distance.
It's somewhere in the middle, and it's also, like, those are not a spectrum. This is a, this is, you know, going off of the axis as well, right? It is asking for, and I think it offers, an immediacy and a proximity and a level of embodiment that you might not get from a sit down tabletop experience.
It is asking you to and inviting you really to, to tune into, okay, what is the physical world? What is the communal, philosophical ideological core of the thing that we're interested in exploring? We're starting with that thesis statement is and building off of it and in a way that feels very emergent.
And, you know, on the flip side, I think when you think of meditation or other experiences where you can get very close to something that is like being within your own body, it's also narrative, right? Or, there is an, element of creation which is not to say that meditation is not a creative practice, I think there are probably people out there who would argue otherwise, but it is actively generative and communal in a way that, you know, speaking for myself, when I've done meditative practice, it's very much rooted in the self, right?
This is, what is my own personal experience? You know, I'm with my own thoughts, I'm with my own body, and I think Keymaster is interested in that, but it is also interested in the larger group organism, right? There's a reason that this is not posited as a solo game. I think you could play Keymaster in a solo way, but it's, it's, very different, right?
Like the, the idea is that we are all under the umbrella of the master key. And so it, it feels like it's, doing something with the group and with the self.
Sam: It feels like meditation might be an activity geared towards a very similar goal of personal introspection or like getting in touch with your own physical body in a way. Keymaster is really interested in getting in touch with that, looking inward, but then bringing what's inward out into the world, and out into the community, in a way that meditation is less interested in that.
Caro: It's a manifestation. It's a manifestation, and I think it, again, like, when we tie that back into ritual, like Rituals are often used for the purpose of manifesting, whether that is a mindset, or manifesting an environment, or manifesting, you know, a physical or spiritual outcome, right?
But it is coming from a place of, hey, we are going to create this thing together that none of us could have created individually on our own.
Sam: Okay. The last thing that I have to say about this game is that I found it really interesting, both reading the text and then engaging in conversation with you about it, how many, like, Best practices for playing the kind of game I like to play are sort of embedded in the rules of this game,
Caro: Mmm,
Sam: Leaving gaps in character to discover through play.
I think that's something that's really really valuable It's classic like dungeon world advice leave gaps and to discover during play. And this makes that really explicit.
The other one that I think is really present here is have a reason to be in the group. Like, whatever the thing is that you're doing, like, have your character have a reason to be there and be involved. And that doesn't mean that maybe there won't be conflict between you and other, characters in the fiction, but like, have a reason to be there because you are a part of this group, and if you're not, what are we doing?
And I don't think that's like an intention of the game at all, but I do think that those are interesting things that are so explicit in this very short text that don't get nearly explicit often enough in other games.
Caro: Yeah, I mean, I think it's, like you say, these are good practices and, and healthy things that we can do when we're playing games, it's like, make sure that there is a communal investment, you know, I think one of, another example is like, If two people pick the same personal keys, it's like, hey, find things about this that feel different so that you're not stepping on somebody else's toes.
Again, going back to that, that language that we keep saying, like, we are bought into this because of the fundamental fiction that we as players are the most interesting way that the key could be expressed. And so recognizing and I think in, in a lot of ways it's about best practices, but it's also about putting players in a place of being their best selves. Whether that is their best selves as good players and as healthy players of the game, but also as stewards of each other and as stewards of self, right?
Like, this is a game about, again, like, bringing a self into the world, and I think it does some really, really interesting and deft work to make sure that it's, it's not just the quote unquote idealized self, but it's doing so in a way that has, like, healthy guidance on how to, to do it in a way that brings out your best self and the best self of all of the players at, at
I was gonna say players at the table, but you're not at a table. That's, you know, that's kind of the point of it.
Sam: Do you have any final things to say about keys and Keymaster?
Caro: I think this game is neat. I, like I said, I don't have much of a larp background, like I, I think so much of work that I've done and, and my relationship to this game is through the text, but it's one of those games where I'm like, I really need to find a chance to sit down and play this.
Or, not sit down, you know, stand up, sit down and stand up, and, and switch between the two,
Sam: yeah.
Caro: this. It does such a good job at communicating its design intent and J speaks so clearly about this is what this game is supposed to feel like and that comes through so plainly on the page but it feels like one of those games where it's like, to get the full experience you, you have to have it in your body so.
At some point I am looking forward getting the chance to play it properly.
Sam: Yeah
Sam: Thanks again to Caro for being here, you can find their work on itch.io check out their latest, Last Train to Bremen, a storytelling game of doomed musicians at poor decisions that uses Liar's dice as its core resolution mechanic. Maybe a future episode on that one. As always you can find me on socials at S Donald or on the dice Exploder discord.
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